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River Lis
The river Lis is a shallow, swampy river that connects the Moonsea to the Dragon Reach and the Sea of Fallen Stars. Much blood has been spilled over control of the Lis, but the terrain itself has defeated any longterm control beyond the “as far as the point of my blade/reach of my spells extends” sort. The term ‘the Lisen Sands’ refers to treacherous marine navigation and flooded areas, not broad beaches or desert area. You recall brackish water from the freshwater swamps (fed by local streams and springs) emptying into a broad, shallow, VERY silty saltwater river that generates lots of oxbows, side-channels, quicksand, dunes (that unlike ‘desert dunes’ change only by water action, not wind, as they’re well-anchored with vegetation), standing dead ‘drowned’ trees, lots of choking vines and stunted wetland living trees (in short, large marshes with lots of ground cover for lurking outlaws and critters) . . . and everywhere insects, insects, clouds of stinging insects. Through the heart of it all winds the broad, slow, mud-opaque-water Lis, sometimes impassable to deep-keeled ships, but never choked so much that water cannot pass from the Moonsea to the Dragonreach. Indeed, spring storms in particular (and fierce winds blowing up heading-south waves at all times of year) can generate ‘Scourings’ of the Lis that briefly give it depths of more than forty feet and a clear, straight channel. Usually, it’s 12 to 15 feet deep (with a soft-chocolate-mud bottom that will allow solid objects to readily pass or sink through it for about another six feet or so), and permanently cloudy. Not Lis Lore A Look At Four Locales of the Realms Daufin This village lies in southern Amn, about three days by cart or afoot east of the Trade Way and two days travel (at the same rate) north from the Imnescource (turn at a crossroads called Immer's Well; a cart-road called Scandar's Way runs a crooked route north and east from Immer's Well through Daufin and on through the similarly small villages of Lorthul and Craun Crowns to reach the River Esmel at the slightly larger barge-port of Starnsword). The location of Daufin was, of course, purposefully left vague in REF5 Lords of Darkness so the Skeletons adventure could be set more or less anywhere in temperate farmland terrain. Kendra's wanderings, by the way, tend to be in rural Amn along the Umar Hills, reaching southeast around the end of the Wealdath only once or twice in a decade. Eskember This small island realm never made it into the Old Grey Box for the same reason Evermeet got shoved several thousand leagues east (closer to mainland Faerun): accurate maps of my 'home' Realms campaign would have been map panel after map panel ('panel' meaning one fit-the-box folded rectangle of those fold-out map pages) of mostly empty water stretching west, with only a few islets and island chains scattered thereon. So to 'find' Eskember, get out the Old Grey Box mapsheet labelled "1031XXXX0703," and look at the Moonshaes. Start at the map panel occupied by the Wave Rocks, the Gull Rocks, and the Moonshaes, and go due west (following the "to Evermeet" arrow that's helpfully floating on the waves there) for two panels of almost-blank sea (the second invisible panel has a tiny cluster of shoals called "Wash Rock" on it, at about the same latitude and position in the panel as the Gull Rocks occupy in the panel you're examining). In the western half of the third panel of proceeding westwards lies Evermeet (at least, as it was situated in the original Realms). Now shift southwest from this panel, diagonal corner to diagonal corner, into a new panel of empty sea. Go west along this new line of latitude the full length of another panel, and as you enter the panel beyond, imagine it dotted with numerous small islands and rocks, and dominated by two larger islands. One of these large isles, about 2-o'clock in orientation to the center of the panel, is a 100-mile-long, fairly slender (30 miles wide at best) east-west crescent (center bow towards the north) that's wild jungle over VERY rough terrain (rock ridges and little gorges cut by numerous small streams that all find their own ways to the sea without ever combining into larger rivers). Shove all manner of monsters, especially oversized bats and nasty plants of all sorts, into this terrain, put abundant gems and a little gold into the many gorge crevices (and if I was doing it today with 3E rulebooks, I'd deploy generous numbers of chokers, too), put in a few deep caves with cloakers and an ancient, subterranean automaton-guarded and magic-item-studded tomb of a fled-from-Netheril archmage, and call the whole thing "Sarambril." Make Sarambril the run-to refuge of some pirates of the Nelanther, and the place the most daring pirates come to seek gems, or put ashore disobedient crew or slaves in a sort of rough justice ("We'll return to this landing-place next year; if you meet us here then with X amount of raw gems in payment, all is forgiven/you're freed...and we'll take you aboard and deliver you ashore in the mainland, just trust us" :}). Most pirates have never been to Sarambril; to them it's a legendary but known-to-be-real place somewhere "far across the trackless waves." South of Sarambril, sheltered by it and by Eskember from the worst winds, are many small, rocky islands inhabited by simple fisher-folk, who have no riches or possessions to speak of (beyond their nets, spears, boats, and huts). These brown-skinned, long-limbed people are called "the Hael" by the pirates, after the name of one of the largest islands (Hael, about twelve miles across and roughly circular), but call themselves after the particular island they come from, and lack any unified government or authority beyond family elders. Though they include many castoff pirates and descendants of shipwreck crews, the Hael don't make war on each other or discriminate among themselves on the basis of blood or appearance; they consider everyone on an island to be 'a family.' Preoccupied with the daily struggle to survive, the Hael are acutely attuned to the weather and the sea, entertain themselves with tale-telling (visitors will instantly become the focus of new tales created from conjecture), and have little interest in alliances, the doings of the wider world, or riches (beyond abundant food, good sails and rope, and the like). Hael treasure good hand-weapons (handaxes, broadswords, and daggers), many of which they've gleaned from outlanders, but mistrust hurled spears, arrows, and the like (any missile weapons beyond the simple sling or rolled boulder) because of the strong, gusty local winds. The Hael wear broad woven straw hats (tied securely on their heads against sea-winds), and wear large, loose, wrap-around-the-body weather-cloaks salvaged from old sails. They make small, slender, swift boats out of palm-trunks lashed together (with lateen sails woven on looms from the cotton-like fibers of the pods of the thradra plants that grow naturally on the high slopes of most of these islands), fish with small drag nets and long palm fish-spears, and flee and hide rather than fighting most outlanders. They dwell in caves that have thatched hillside 'forerooms' built over the cavemouths, and tiny 'back ways out' (concealed by capstones) laboriously dug for each cave that doesn't naturally connect with another. Many of the ridges in the islands of the Hael are honeycombed with small, spiderlike cavern networks, customarily divided into individual sleeping-caves by readily-rolled-aside stones, and having many connections to the outside. The Hael neither read nor write, but they can count, have their own arithmetical characters and symbols for warnings and place-markings, and have a simple system of whistling and "seabird-shriek" calls that they use to communicate across water. They speak a heavily-accented Chondathan, and Common. The Hael have long since exterminated most of the predators on their islands, though wyverns fly out from Sarambril on 'hunger raids' from time to time. A few islands amid the cluster of 130-plus small islets remain wild and monster-roamed; Hael seeking to get rid of belligerent outlanders will sometimes direct such folk to one of these, claiming ruins thereon contain rich treasure. Many of the islands DO have ancient crumbling-stone-wall ruins (of origins unknown to the Hael), but the only 'treasure' most of them hold is monsters, monsters, and more monsters. Some of the more populous islands of the Hael (in roughly descending order of size) include: Hael, Sorsee, Umbar, Thloekil, Thammar, Ruveldar, Osell, Mrasak, Oumpaun, Ilidil, Tarmusk, Faedree, and Darso. To the west of the islands of the Hael is the large island of Eskember, which is roughly teardrop-shaped, with its long axis running north-south and its larger, bulbous part at the south end. Its northern spur is about forty miles across in most places, and 120 miles or so long, curving slightly to the northeast at its tip (which is a profusion of rocks, shoals, and islets rising out of the sea). Its southern bulk is about seventy miles across and fifty miles 'high' from north to south, and its entire western flank consists of a rugged range of mountain peaks that thrust almost vertically up out of the sea and the rest of the land-mass, forming a sheltering wall. The peaks are said to be 'haunted' by beasts that "eat the minds of men," and few folk trouble to go there to see what these menaces may be. Eskember is usually covered with a light mist, and is always covered with a forest of huge shadowtop trees, of a height and girth astonishing to most mainlanders who see them. These forest giants are much prized for use in shipmaking, and for centuries sawmills and shipbuilding slips have been located here; of old a few intrepid seafaring folk of Tethyr, Tashluta, and Baldur's Gate considered this place their 'secret hoard of ships.' Down the centuries, sheep-farms and then small trading-ports grew up around the coastal mills and shipwrights' yards (which are located at the only two settlements of Eskember: the horseshoe-shaped port "Eskember" that surrounds the natural harbor of Tarnstar Bay, a long inlet at the center of the eastern face of the island's southern bulk; and Halamorn, located where the small Darsurpar River empties into Rathaer's Bay, two-thirds up the eastern shore of the island's northern spur). The port of Eskember, in particular, has become something of a crossroads trading place, haven, and 'neutral ground' for pirates, outlaws, slavers, whalers, far-faring fisherfolk, and outcasts from all over Faerun. The pirate Rathaer set himself up as 'Lord of Eskember' centuries back, largely to establish a rather brutal law-keeping force that drove home his idea of Eskember being a 'down-all-weapons, suspend-all-feuds' place. He died long ago, but his best import remains: established clergies of Helm, Mielikki, Selune, and Silvanus who govern in concert, 'in the name of' the Lord of Eskember (whose empty throne is kept on display, never-if they or any of the rival pirates who call in at Eskember have anything to say about it-to again be filled). A few priests of Chauntea, Ilmater, Lathander, Lliira, Lurue, Sune and Tymora can also be found on the island, but they take no part in governance, and form no priesthoods larger than a dozen individuals. From time to time folk who've fled to Eskember or parted ways from captains or crews there will get together on a newly-built boat to sail east to the mainland, usually sailing well south to avoid the Nelanther, and calling at Tharsult or Tashluta. In these voyages they're aided by two things: even the fiercest ship-wrecking storms seldom manage to actually sink ships that are crammed full of lumber, and a deck cargo of large masts sold at the docks of any Sword Coast port usually defrays all costs of the voyage and leaves every person disembarking quite wealthy. This has led to tales of "distant, golden Eskember" and "Eskember the Sea-Haven," many of which are so embellished that folk who reach Eskember are often bewildered not to find an empire, palaces full of riches and beautiful folk, and the like. Those who come to conquer are warned that the Mist Haven's forests hide more than a few simple dwellings of powerful folk who came to this remote isle so as not to be found-but retain the means to firmly resist unwanted visitors. Helbrester Of old, this fortified city of linked towers (great cylinders built of green-hued local island stone by a small group of folk fled from Netheril, whose magic extended to little more than levitations and spells that could shape stone and fuse rocks into great solid masses) rose like a hand reaching for the stars from a low-lying island just east of the site of Irphong. The founders of Helbrester, who used magic to prolong their lives and became known as the Elders, favored a policy of isolation from the world, preferring to spend their time in arcane studies and in perfecting 'snatch-portals' that could open at selected mainland locations, magically 'suck in' beasts they wanted to dine on or items they wanted to possess, and 'snatch' said things back to the linked, labyrinthine halls of Helbrester. The city itself consisted of towers built so close together, and linked on so many levels, that only seabirds and creeping beasts could use the spaces between. Great domed crystal ceilings were raised over many towers to let light down in, to illuminate garden-like interiors of large halls, but many smaller rooms and passages existed in almost perpetual gloom, illuminated by floating, semi-sentient glowing 'driftglobes.' As time passed, the original Elders died, or withdrew into seclusion (acquiring a reputation among their descendants for becoming ever-more-deeply "age-crazed"), and younger generations of their offspring, and the children of their unions with 'snatched' mainland folk, populated Helbrester. They looked at the world around with great interest, and started to trade, setting themselves up as a reprovisioning and repair port for ships plying the Sword Coast. When pirates sought to seize control of Helbrester, the increasingly-powerful spells of a few of the Elders blasted the pirates and their ships, until Helbrester won a "touch-them-not" reputation. Mainlanders seeking freedom from various oppressions sailed to the Sunset Towers (as the city of Helbrester became known) seeking to dwell there, and were usually accepted. The city slowly grew into a neutral-ground port used by pirates and merchant shippers alike, though many coastal Tethyrians mistrusted it as "a pirate power waiting to erupt." It was governed by its self-styled Lords and Ladies, the heads of twelve of its most senior families (which included the surnames Arathtaea, Hallowhand, Iyrimsar, and Kolthund). Unbeknownst to Helbrestans, two Elders who'd retired completely from public life and memory to lurk entirely in hidden, spell-guarded rooms and passages, eventually attained two different imperfect forms of lichdom. Both forms of undeath required the liches to subsume energies (life-essence for one, and spell-power for the other) from time to time, or crumble away. So one (Thakloamur by name) became a kidnapper and murderer, and the other (Mingaudorr) a thief of magic. They managed to elude detection for some years by preying almost exclusively on visiting outlanders, although dark rumors began to circulate in the city-but when they met and fought each other, and began to feud in earnest, their spellbattles started to destroy the city. Towers came crashing down as one lich or the other sought to destroy his rival. The bewildered Helbrestans raced through the rubble with drawn swords seeking to find who was responsible, but were powerless to stop most of the city being laid waste. Mingaudorr was thrown down and buried in the collapse of the entire southern end of Helbrester, and the battles ceased. Pirates promptly came plundering, and the few Helbrestans who survived their raids fled the city forever. Pirates who sought to claim the remaining towers as a stronghold were slain by the stalking Thakloamur, and when a pirate fleet whelmed to hunt down this mysterious slayer, the lich's spells blasted entire ships to tumbling embers. However, the battle-tremors freed Mingaudorr, who worked a titanic magic that (most sages agree) destroyed his foe, the very island Helbrester stood upon, all that was left of the city, and Mingaudorr himself. The riven island was hurled into the skies as its roots were drowned by the seas, and Helbrester was no more. Some folk believe that either Thakloamur or Mingaudorr or both survived that final battle, perhaps as crazed and cumbling remnants of themselves-and their opinions are supported by the undeniable evidence that from time to time, along the coasts of Amn and Tethyr, 'snatch-portals' open without warning to take beings and things to an unknown otherwhere. On the other hand, these spells could be worked by descendants of other Helbrestans or even folk who gained such spells from others who fled Netheril. What is certain is that nothing but jagged shoal rocks and tumbled stones lie off Irphong today where once rose the proud towers of Helbrester. Tor Mak As REF5 Lords of Darkness tells us, "Widden Valley is a broad expanse of grassy fields and tree-lined hills. The narrow Widden River bisects the valley. To the south of it is the village of Meryn. To the north of it is the ruined city of Tor Mak...once a prosperous place, a center of learning that was home to scholars and wizards. But the walled city was laid waste in the Goblin Wars, now long past." Like Daufin, this locale was created by Deborah Christian for REF5 Lords of Darkness, and the whereabouts of Tor Mak was kept nebulous therein so DMs could most easily transplant it into their own campaigns. At the time, I chose to make the Widden the middle tributary of the River Nun (the one that on the mapsheet for The Vilhon Reach rises closest to Colletro), and placed Tor Mak about three miles north of the river and about fifteen miles east of the headwaters of the Widden, and Meryn about ten miles south of the river and about sixteen miles from its rising (in other words, farther west than 'due south' from Tor Mak). I didn't develop any backstory for either Tor Mak or the Goblin Wars, because play in the 'home' Realms campaign didn't reach the ruins, and because I like to leave mysteries lying around for other folks to build Realmslore on. :} Readers of my lore-screeds on Chondath will recall that all of this area is in the hands of various self-styled lordlings. The closest of these is Faelae Windthrarn, who calls himself 'Crowned Lord' of the Malander-which is the valley occupied by the main River Nun, that (if one navigates upriver from the sea in a very small boat) is the westernmost branch, and reaches farthest south. The Malander is a small realm of verdant barley and root-crops farms, policed by the swift-riding 'knights' of the Crowned Lord. Lord Windthrarn dines on and exports a constant supply of sheep, too plentiful in numbers to be supported by the small number of fields he gives over to grazing, and Elminster suspects that the Crowned Lord has a captured deepspawn in a cavern somewhere busily disgorging an endless stream of sheep. In the original 'home' Realms campaign, this law-of-the-sword region is very much like the Border Kingdoms: adventurer types are endlessly arriving, butchering or running off the resident lordlings, and setting themselves up with grand titles (such as "The Overking of All Crommador" and "The Exalted Lord of the Great Realm") to rule over a few cow pastures, a village, a mill, a keep, and a woodlot or two-until the next would-be ruler comes along. It makes for great adventuring, with running feuds, lurking Thayan agents making alliances with one lordling against another and then backstabbing their recent allies, intelligent undead and mages who want to cast experimental spells and practise monster-crafting running amok, outlaws rushing in (hotly pursued) with stolen treasure to hide, and the works. When PCs need a breather, they can always seek the Underdark or a big war elsewhere as a place to relax in. :} Category:Rivers Category:Locations on the Moonsea Category:Locations in North Faerûn Category:Locations on the Dragon Reach